Supervisor shot at, hospitalised in Cuttack

Paradip: Tension ran high in the port town here this afternoon after a supervisor of a contractor was shot at by three unidentified miscreants near the construction site of a Plastic Park.

The injured supervisor Jitendra Pradhan was rushed to the Biju Memorial Hospital at Paradip from where he was shifted to Ashwini Hospital in Cuttack as his condition became critical.

Talking to media persons before being shifted to Cuttack, Pradhan said “Three persons came to the construction site near the Plastic Park at about 1 PM on a bike and asked me who is in charge of this construction site. When I told them that the site belongs to Gangadhar Jena, a contractor of Gannon Dunkerley Co Ltd, they threw three country-made bombs at the machinery. Later, they opened two rounds of blank fire and asked us to stop work. At this, another supervisor and other workers present at the spot ran away. They then thrashed me. As I tried to resist, one of them opened fire at me. Since I instinctively lowered my head, the bullet brushed the upper part of my head. Soon after the incident, the three miscreants fled the area.”

Asked whether the three miscreants had come to the site earlier, Pradhan said he had never seen them before prior to this incident.

Talking about the incident, contractor Gangadhar Jena said this was the first incident in which some miscreants have attacked his men.

“There was no enmity with anyone. There was a problem with the villagers over payment towards the acquisition of their land. I had gone to the village recently and assured the villagers that they will get the payment very soon and they had agreed,” he added.